The West Virginia House of Delegates has overwhelmingly passed legislation that would allow increased water pollution via an amendment negotiated by a state manufacturing industry group.
The House on Wednesday voted 82-14 to approve House Bill 2233, an environmental rules package that includes a proposed rule change that would allow removal of a drinking water use designation for surface waters in certain circumstances and risk a less precise indication of Ohio River fecal contamination.
The Republican-supermajority House signed off on those measures, which now go before the Senate, a day after rejecting an amendment proposal from Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, that would have struck the allowance of drinking water use designation removal from the legislation.
Environmental advocates and House Democrats have argued the bill is an unnecessarily dangerous concession to industry.
“The main issue here today is whether you want more toxic pollution at West Virginia streams,†Hansen said in a House floor speech in support of his amendment Tuesday.
The drinking water use designation removal backed by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection was negotiated by that agency with the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, which has long fought for more lax state water quality oversight.
Delegate with industry ties backs looser water oversight
House Energy and Manufacturing Subcommittee Chair Bob Fehrenbacher, R-Wood, a former plant manager at the Chemours Co.’s chronically high-polluting Washington Works chemical manufacturing facility in Wood County with ties to the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, defended the proposed rule change allowing drinking water use designation removal.
On the House floor Wednesday, Fehrenbacher touted a provision that would require the designation removal to still be protective of downstream uses per the federal Clean Water Act. The two-term delegate was a plant manager for Chemours from November 2014 to February 2019 and a unit manager for DuPont from March 2010 to November 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Chemours, which was spun off from DuPont in 2015, took over the Washington Works site from the latter that year.
Fehrenbacher chairs West Virginia Manufacturers Association Educational Fund Inc.’s board, per his LinkedIn profile. The fund is a nonprofit that promotes a greater awareness of manufacturing careers and the academic preparation required for advanced manufacturing jobs, the fund reported in tax documents.
DEP Deputy Secretary Scott Mandirola told the House Energy and Public Works Committee prior to it advancing the rules package last week the proposal to change state requirements governing water quality standards wouldn’t weaken those standards.
But Mandirola admitted the proposed change could result in less stringent pollution limits.
Toxic chemical pollution limits for drinking water use are significantly more stringent than limits for aquatic life and other uses.
“This is about more toxic pollution in our streams — period,†the West Virginia Rivers Coalition said in an email to supporters to rally opposition to HB 2233 Monday.
The Rivers Coalition has predicted downstream water systems will be burdened by HB 2233 through increased treatment costs for utilities and elevated difficulty in maintaining drinking water safety while industry spends less treating their toxic discharges.
Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, noted in a House floor speech Tuesday that drinking water quality has been a long-festering issue in southern coalfield communities devastated by flooding last month.
“They couldn’t even wash their items,†Hornbuckle said in support of Hansen’s failed amendment proposal. “That water had black, orange, yellow sludge in it. No clean drinking water. And so, again, any measure that this body can take to protect our drinking water, we need to act upon that.â€
The six Republicans joining eight Democrats in voting against the rules package Wednesday were delegates David Cannon, R-Hampshire; Jeff Eldridge, R-Lincoln; Bill Flanigan, R-Ohio; Assistant Majority Whip Joe Funkhouser, R-Jefferson; Assistant Majority Leader Elliott Pritt, R-Fayette; and Bryan Smith, R-Taylor.
Hansen has noted HB 2233 would allow chemical manufacturers like Chemours to seek less stringent water pollution permit limits. In a floor speech Wednesday, Hansen pointed out the Washington Works facility’s lengthy history of polluting toxic chemicals known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).
Chemours did not respond to a request for comment.
DuPont began using toxic chemicals known as PFAS to make Teflon-products at the Washington Works site in 1951.
After PFAS used to make Teflon-related products at the Washington Works facility discharged into water supplies, people living in the area experienced increased rates of:
Testicular and kidney cancer
Thyroid disease
Ulcerative colitis
Pregnancy-induced hypertension
In December, the Rivers Coalition filed a federal lawsuit against Chemours to stop alleged permit exceedances for pollution discharges into the Ohio River.
The Greater Cincinnati Water Works is concerned elevated PFAS levels reportedly being discharged by Chemours may pose an increased public health risk to Kentucky and Ohio communities that use the Ohio River as their drinking water source, according to testimony filed in the case last month.
West Virginia’s percentage of public water systems with health-based violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act in 2022 was 22.7%, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data, far exceeding the 4.5% national average. West Virginia’s clip of public water systems in this category had been just 4.7% in 2015.
The percentage of public water systems in West Virginia identified as priority systems — systems on a list indicating unresolved serious or continuing violations for at least a quarter of the year — was 42.2% in 2022, dwarfing the national average of 3.2%.
Mike Tony covers energy and the environment. He can be reached at mtony@hdmediallc.com or 304-348-1236. Follow @Mike__Tony on X.
